Category: Misc

2018 wasn’t a particularly productive year for quilts, however that can happen when you are working full-time. I gave myself permission last year to play – to work on a project until something else caught my attention and then move on. The down side to all that play is all the projects that are on my design wall waiting to be finished. So 2019 will be focused on moving some of those from ideas into quilts.

Only 8 spools of thread emptied – this is the lowest number since I started doing an annual photograph. Usually when I am sewing strings or very scrappy quilts is when I go through a bunch of spools.

Here it is the January 6th, 2018 and I am finally getting around to posting a wrap up of 2017. Oh, well.

2017 was a mixed bag of meeting goals, however the most important one was accomplished which was the completion of the Lincoln quilt top.

I wanted to start 2018 with empty design walls which didn’t happen. The quilt top that didn’t get finished in 2017 is Bouillabaissee.

Bouillabaissee will be a twin-sized quilt and only five of the small blocks had been made when I started concentrating on this project in the middle of December.

Imagine the other two side triangles and that is what the block will look like. There are 12 blocks in the top each measuring 20″ square. Hopefully it will be completed by the end of the month.

Another big goal for 2017 was to machine quilt 25 tops – and yeah, that didn’t get done either. 22 quilts were completed, # 23 needs the sleeve sewn down to be finished and #24 & #25 are layered with backing & batting awaiting their turn for machine quilting. The intent of the goal was met though – 22 quilts were finished and 18 quilt tops made making a net reduction of 4 quilt tops. All progress, however small, is celebrated here.

Looking back at 2017 many smaller goals were crossed off the list. My first Jen Kingwell designed quilt was made,

several old UFO’s are now quilts or quilt tops,

and a block on my sew-some-day list was made into a top.

And here is the yearly picture of all the empty spools – not as many as last year, but still a respectful amount.

My biggest goal for 2016 was to NOT contribute to my UFO projects and I was successful. Right now I have three projects in process – Winter Diamonds (needs the embroidery on the snowman),

my leaders/enders project (Charlotte’s Baskets) and the Lincoln Quilt (8 out of 13 blocks completed). There were 11 finished quilts and 25 quilt tops sewn among which were 5 UFOs and 1 kit. I also discovered that I don’t care for hand quilting and like trapunto in small doses. There were 31 spools of thread emptied with all the quilt tops and string blocks that were sewn this year.

The Rocky Mountain Bear Claws wallhanging and table runner tops were completed. I am so happy to have them off of my design wall and be able to move on to something else.

As for 2017 – the two biggest goals are to machine quilt 25 tops and (same as last year) do not add to the UFO project bins. Actually I have no idea how many UFOs I have mostly because I refuse to go through and count them. But as long as I continue to finish some up every year and do not add to the count, eventually there will be none. I want to get the Lincoln quilt top completed in 2017 and as soon as that is done I plan to make a crib sized Bible quilt. Other than those two tops, I am going where ever quilting inspirations takes me.

The five phases of losing your first tooth.1. Get a loose tooth and wiggle it for a couple of days.2. Wrestle daddy and very unexpectedly your tooth will fall out.3. Freak out and cry for 10 solid minutes because your parents did not prepare you for what would happen when your tooth fell out. Yell over and over that daddy broke your tooth and keep handing it to mommy so she can fix it.4. Look online at pictures of other kids with missing teeth so you can see how cool it is.
5. When you’re finally feeling better about your missing tooth, smile and tell your parents that now you want a gold tooth there.

My oldest daughter sent me this email and picture. I know that she is a very talented lady, but I don’t think that “fixing a tooth” is on her resume.What a blessing grandchildren are!Grandma Marlene

My daughter suggested a better name for this quilt. It is now Spidey-Ninja-Frog. Here is a close-up of the quilting – a spider web, of course.

Using the walking foot on my Bernina, I quilt 4-6 lines that all intersect at the same place. Starting near the center of the web, spiral around from line to line using the edge of the walking foot as a guide.

This is a great quilting design for Spidey-Ninja-Frog and Halloween wall hangings, but I don’t plan on using it on anything larger.

There is binding to finish on the next quilt (pictures tomorrow), then it is on to Easy Street.

With the leftovers from the alphabet quilt blocks, I made nine patches leader and ender style.

I have enough 2 1/2″ squares cut to make five more blocks. My first thought was that some Dr Seuss fabric would be great as the alternate square –

but as soon as I placed a nine patch on the fabric, I knew that it wouldn’t work – too much white. The picture really shows how the black fabric makes the colors pop. There isn’t enough of this black fabric to use in the quilt, so I found a black with white musical notes and colored instruments in my stash.

I really enjoy making a second quilt with the leftover fabric from the first one. It makes me feel like I am getting a second quilt for free. If you enjoy working with the colors the first time around, why not repeat the fun?

Tomorrow I head to Denver to visit family and attend the Denver Quilt Show. This is the seventh year of the show and I have made it to every one. Some years are better than others and I will give you my impressions next week.

But until then I do have something interesting to share.

On April 21st I went to Delta’s Quilt Show. It is a small quilt show and without hurrying, I went through the whole show in 50 minutes. During that time I won a door prize – the zippered pouch on the left.

Then on April 28th the local quilt shop celebrated their first year anniversary and I won the quilt kit on the right.

Am I on a roll or what? I wonder what quilty thing will come my way this weekend. I will let you know next week.